


Better Than I Knew

by Phia



Category: Free!
Genre: Arcades, Childhood Memories, Fluff, M/M, Promises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-07-29 21:24:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7700206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phia/pseuds/Phia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The glitter of lights and Haru's eyes and something still there, even after five years.</p><p>For RinHaru Week and Day 2's Blue prompt — Promises.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better Than I Knew

The lights of the arcade are bold and brilliant. Neon stripes line the walls. The illuminated screens of each machine cast faded squares onto the carpet.  
  
The air smells of popcorn and sweet, sugary snacks. The long hall doesn’t hold too many people at this night hour. But there’s enough chatter to muffle pop music from the speakers in the room’s corners. A group of teenagers crowds around a game with a dance floor, while a couple laughs over the guns of a shooting game.  
  
Nagisa is already darting ahead of his three friends. He waves his fists in the air while he runs, the tokens jingling. Rin looked awed by the machines, the lights reflecting in his irises. He keeps looking up, reading the titles above each attraction. He regards the machines as if they’re skyscrapers in a grand city. But Nagisa is tearing through the place without looking, and Makoto yells after him.  
  
Nagisa stumbles, the fault of his own feet. Makoto’s eyes widen and he reaches out, grasping at air. “Nagisa!” he shrieks. Haru recognizes it as his mothering voice, tinged with panic.  
  
The blond boy whirls to peer at his friend, dodging a mother holding her toddler. She glares at him before passing the group of twelve-year-olds.  
  
Makoto sighs and glances at Haru, worry pulling the corners of his mouth downward. “Do you mind if I just ... go ahead and watch Nagisa?”  
  
He’s shifting on his feet, and if Haru wanted him to stay, he’d be cruel to ask for that. Haru just looks at Makoto, the answer in his eyes. Makoto nods upon receiving his answer. He breaks from the group. Now Rin is at Haru’s side, and he turns to his teammate with a wide smile.  
  
“Do you know which game you wanna play?”  
  
Haru raises an eyebrow. The arcade is too bright and there don’t seem to be any games about water. “No.”  
  
Rin’s smile grows. “Well, come on!” He grabs Haru’s arm and drags him towards a machine.  
  
They race cars. Then, they shoot guns at zombies on a screen. Then, they play a multiplayer game of Pac-Man. By the sixth round of that, Haru is starting to feel the energy drain out of his body. His eyes start to close and his shoulders sag.  
  
“Hey,” Rin says, pulling on the hood of his jacket. Haru’s eyes startle open.  
  
“Nagisa’s not done yet.” Rin smirks, and Haru knows that Nagisa’s hopped on sugar from the candy he’d eaten on the car ride over. They can only hope for Makoto’s fate. “Do you wanna head back to the booth?”

Makoto’s mother sits in a booth near the entrance, reading the news on her phone. Haru nods and follows Rin through the dwindling crowd.  
  
They’re almost out of the gaming area when Rin stops in his tracks. He doesn’t even look back at Haru, just advances towards the claw machine.  
  
Haru stands beside him and peers through the smudged glass. The machine holds plastic capsules of varying sizes with lids in a rainbow of colors. He sees why the machine snags Rin's attention. The trinkets in the capsules, the challenge of the claw, the almost-impossibility of winning.  
  
Rin’s eyes gleam when he looks at Haru. “Want something?”  
  
Haru's eyes roll heavenward. “Are you that sure that you’ll win?”  
  
Rin’s brow rises, and one side of his mouth quirks up. It’s the same grin that says, _Haru, you wanna race_? “Give me a token."  
  
Haru finds one in his pocket and holds it out in his palm. Rin takes it, fingertips brushing Haru’s skin. When Haru shoves his hand back into his pocket, he rubs his thumb over his palm, feeling where Rin just touched.  
  
But Rin doesn’t notice this — he slides the token into the machine and grips the joystick. His eyes track the glinting claw as it moves across the paths he draws. He jabs the red button at the end of the joystick with his thumb. The claw descends and its tines surround a capsule with a blue lid.  
  
Rin lets go of the joystick and the machine does the rest of the work. The claw returns to where it hovers over the drop-off slot, and drops the capsule into the channel. Haru sticks his hand in and grips the capsule, pulling it out.  
  
“Told you,” Rin declares. “Promise you’ll win me something next time?”  
  
Haru pops off the capsule’s lid and removes the white scroll inside. He unfurls it and the glitter of the stickers catches the light.  
  
“Sure,” he says, caught up in this boy and his confidence and his sudden hold on Haru’s wrist. Rin smiles and tugs him into the other room.

 

* * *

 

Rin steps out of his shower in the locker room, a towel around his waist. It doesn’t matter, anyway, since his teammates already left their joint practice with Iwatobi. But that’s the first time he sees it.  
  
Rin’s bag, with his extra clothes inside, sits against his preferred bench. That’s not unusual. What draws his eye is a small sticker of a peach seashell. It’s plastered to the seat of the bench and when Rin bends to peel it off, the sticker isn’t much bigger than his thumb.  
  
He swears that it wasn’t there when he entered the room, but whatever, it’s fine. He slips it into a pocket of his bag and begins changing.

 

* * *

 

The second time is on a train back from Iwatobi, where he’d gone to visit Gou. There’s a sticker on the back of his phone, a depiction of a mermaid, with a blue mane of hair and glittering scales.

“What the Hell...”  
  
He shoves his phone back into his pocket, forgetting about his texts. A face flashes into his memory, but he shakes his head, leaning back into the seat.  
  
_Coincidence. It’s just a coincidence._

 

* * *

  
  
The third time is not a coincidence and Rin knows this because Haru is pressing the sticker into his hand.  
  
He leaves to visit Iwatobi again, more for the team instead of Gou, and he’ll admit that. More for Haru, too. They look at each other the same way after five years, and it makes Rin feel static down to his toes.  
  
He likes it, he’ll admit that too. And Haru hasn't changed his ways. He still glances at Rin when he thinks the other swimmer isn’t looking. And with Haru, a glance means more than that.  
  
But they pass the arcade on a walk downtown, and Nagisa shouts, “You guys remember that?” Makoto laughs, a little stilted, and Haru says nothing, as usual.  
  
They follow Nagisa in, the depiction of drifting teenagers looking for something to do. The place has suffered some wear. The air smells like sweat and shoes, and Haru’s nose crinkles.  
  
Makoto buys tokens for Nagisa and himself. Rin asks him for a few and Makoto drops a few gold coins into his palm.  
  
“A half hour?” Makoto asks, staring more at Haru than Rin. They exchange silent words, and Makoto smiles before following Nagisa into the game room. Rin almost rolls his eyes, but he’s getting used to their non-verbal communication again.  
  
He stands with Haru, neither speaking, and examines the characters on the tokens. He turns his wrist, tilting the cup of his hand. The coins slide across Rin’s palm, and he looks up.  
  
Haru matches his glance, holding out a hand. “Can I have one?”  
  
Rin tries to hide his surprise, nodding. He gives Haru a coin, and Haru begins to walk, following their friends’ path. Rin puts his hands in his pockets and splays the fingers of his right one, allowing the coins to fall in. He follows Haru until they stand in front of the claw machine.  
  
“Hey!” Rin points at himself in the reflection of the glass. He smiles, the memories of being carefree washing over him. Haru crouches and slips a token into the machine. “I remember this.”  
  
“Me too,” Haru says, and Rin watches his blue eyes follow the claw as it settles over a container with a red cap. It descends, grasping the capsule and returning to the drop-off point. The prize falls from its metal clutch. Haru sticks his hand into the machine and comes out with the toy, handing it to Rin.  
  
Rin flips the lid off with his thumb and shakes the capsule until the toy sits in his hand. It’s an eraser that looks like a steak.  
  
He tries, but he laughs anyways, at the absurdity of holding an eraser shaped to look like a food. As he blinks away tears, he catches Haru’s rare smile, and everything feels even better.  
  
“Thanks,” he manages to say. “I can’t believe you remembered that promise. That was ... wow. Five years ago."  
  
Haru shrugs. The smile is gone, but his face seems relaxed and open. “Finding these again helped bring it back to me.”  
  
He reaches into a pocket of his black pants and draws out a crinkled piece of paper. He hands it to RIn, and there it is, a sticker of a cerulean wave.  
  
“Why?” Rin blurts.  
  
Haru’s eyes run over the toys in the machine. “Why...?”  
  
“Why did you... give me these?”  
  
And Haru nabs the paper from Rin’s hand, and Rin’s stomach drops. Whatever they’ve established, even though he doesn’t know what he is — he wants it. He wants standing together and knowing that Haru remembers a promise that they made.  
  
Haru peels the sticker off the paper, and the scrap falls to the carpet. He grabs Rin’s hand, easy since his arm hangs at his side. He brings it between them, so that they witness Haru smoothing the sticker over the center of Rin’s palm.  
  
The touch of Haru’s thumb startles Rin into jolting. His fingers move, entangling with Haru's until they're holding hands.  
  
And Haru looks at him, and Rin sees the way that the ocean turns. For years and years but always finding its way back to the shore. And if this wasn’t enough—  
  
“I thought you’d want your confession to be romantic.”  
  
A moment of silence for them to hold each other's gazes and know. Rin's won more than stickers or an eraser or anything.  
  
He smiles so hard that he almost cries.  
  
Then, Haru smiles back, and Rin actually cries this time.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to those who have left kudos on my works, as I've hit 1,000. And thank you for reading this piece! I hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> Tumblr: [wildharu](http://wildharu.tumblr.com)


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